Manners. 



n * C U R L E W. 



each feather being To marked down the fhaft ; befldes which, 

 many of them are margined or marked on the edge with pale 

 fpots : the lower part of the back and rump are white : the 

 upper tail coverts white,, barred with dufky : tail brown, croiTecL, 

 with feven or eight darker bars: quills dufky black, marked on 

 the inner webs with femkircular fpots cf dufky white j the (hafts 

 white : belly, thighs, and vent, dufky white : legs black. Such 

 is the defcription of my fpecimen, which is the largeft we 

 have hitherto feen, the ufual length being about fifteen inches ;.. 

 though Mr. Pennant mentions one which meafured fixteen : in 

 this the bill was only two inches. Hence it feems to vary in a 

 great degree in refpect to fize. 

 lBd The Whimbrel has much the fame manners as the Curlew, but 



is lefs common in England, and is- migratory ; at leafi pafles" 

 from one part of the kingdom to another, according to the fea- 

 fon. In the neighbourhood of Spalding, in Lincolnjhire, it is-tnet 

 with in vaft flocks, from April to May, on its paffage to the 

 north *, where it is faid to breed. It is alfo feen in flocks about 

 the fame time on the Kentijh coafts r and it may be that the ma- 

 jor part pafs elfewhere ; yet many remain, as I had "the fatif- 

 faction of receiving the one from which the above defcription 

 was taken, from our intelligent friend Mr. Boys of Sandwich. 

 This was fhot at Romney in the month of Auguft, where it is. 

 called a Jack f ; with the affurance that many of them flay on 

 thofe coafts throughout the fummer, and breed thereabouts. 



* Breeds, in the heath of the Highland hills, near Invercauld. — Flor. Scot, ii 

 p. 32. — Tour in Scold. 8vo. p. 108. — Br. Zool. 



t It is probably called the Jack Curlew, from its being lefs in fize, though, 

 like in colour, to the common Curlew ; in the fame manner as two of our Snipes are. 

 diilinguiihed^ 



This 



